|
Special Reports
In this section of BrokerUniverse we examine a subject of key importance
for mortgage originators every month, based on special reports that run in our sister publication, Origination News.
Emerging Markets
Emerging Markets: Pieces Come Together
By Amilda Dymi
If one looks at the first-time buyer market these days, it pretty much looks like
a mosaic. Lenders simply have to get a little closer to any of the smaller markets that make up the whole to be
able to see it clearly.
In the current soft housing marketplace, mortgage originators are bound to focus more on untraditional new business
resources, especially first-time homebuyers, low-income, underserved or emerging minority and immigrant customers,
who may be ready to get a mortgage but have not yet made it to the closing table.
At present, both expected and unexpected obstacles remain on the way to homeownership. A new development appears
to have affected the industry. The Internal Revenue Service crackdown on downpayment assistance providers in May
is said to have the potential to cripple the Federal Housing Administration's single-family program, which is dependent
on borrowers receiving downpayment assistance for a large proportion of its loan volume. In other words, given
the decrease in the FHA share of the purchase mortgage market, the proportion of FHAs with downpayment and closing-cost
assistance has increased dramatically.
Meanwhile, Hispanic markets continue to attract lenders and brokers bringing new players into the marketplace.
AmeriCasa Mortgage is one such company focusing on U.S.-born Hispanics whose primary language is English. The Asian-Pacific
American community also is being rediscovered as a new frontier of the first-time buyer market.
|
